Antonio Innocenti

Antonio Innocenti (23 August 1915 – 6 September 2008) was a Cardinal who was the lead figure of the Roman Curia and the Vatican diplomatic service for many years. He was born at Poppi, Italy.

Ordained in 1938 at Florence, Innocenti served as a priest in northern Italy for the following decade. His work helping Jews led to his arrest and almost being shot by a firing squad; he was released at the last minute. He was then called to Rome by Pope Pius XII and settled on a career in the Curia. He served for most of the 1950s and 1960s in the Papal Nunciature in Switzerland, where, as he saw it, the major problems were "an opulent society, religious assistance to immigrants and relations with Christian of other denominations".

On 15 December 1967, Innocenti was elevated by Pope Paul VI to the role of Titular Archbishop of Eclano and at exactly the same time appointed Papal Nuncio to Paraguay. He served as Nuncio to Paraguay whilst holding a number of titular sees until 1973, when he was promoted to the role of Secretary of the Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments (now the Congregation for Divine Worship) until 1980, when Innocenti became Nuncio to Spain.

In 1985, Pope John Paul II rewarded the experienced prelate by creating him a Cardinal and one year later Innocenti became Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, a post he was to hold until he passed the mandatory retirement age of seventy five in 1991. During Innocenti's time as Prefect, the Curia was extremely busy dealing with what was perceived as dangerous dissent from papal teaching, and Innocenti was heavily involved with many lay movements designed to restore orthodoxy among the Church's members.

After stepping down from his post as Prefect in 1991, Innocenti gradually faded into retirement. When he turned eighty in 1995, he lost his right to vote at papal conclaves, and by 1999 he had completely retired to Piazza della Citta Leonina.